Monday, March 2. 2015

For centuries, Barbary pirates of countries of north Africa on the Mediterranean coast were capturing ships of Christian countries, plundering cargo, and holding sailors for ransom and in slavery. Soon after the United States declared its independence, U.S. ships found themselves in harms way (previously, they had been somewhat protected as part of the British empire). On March 2, 1815, Congress passed a law that "authorized the administration to man, equip, and employ the naval force as the president judged necessary to protect trade and seamen in the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, 'and adjoining seas.'"¹ President Madison signed it into law the next day. Learn more about the Barbary wars through books in the library's collection. For example:

¹Leiner, F. C. (2006). End of Barbary Terror: America's 1815 War Against the Pirates of North Africa. New York: Oxford.

Thursday, February 19. 2015

The lists of new books and other materials added to the library’s collection in January have been posted. The list of e-books contains nearly 24,000 titles! Click on “…more New Arrivals” on the library’s home page. Or, go directly to http://library.umd.umich.edu/newbooks/.

Friday, February 6. 2015

A petition was presented to the United States Congress on Monday, Feb. 6, 1815 from residents of Massachusetts "praying that the mails may not be opened or transported on Sundays." Similar petitions were presented from Vermont and Delaware. The result? The petitions were referred to the "committee of the whole House, on the report of the Committee on the Post-office and Post-roads on that subject." Was that the beginning of the end of Sunday mail delivery?

Thursday, February 5. 2015

February 5 was the day on which John Jeffries was born in 1744. Jeffries is considered one of America's first weather observers and he was an early balloonist. In 1785, he "took a barometer, hygrometer, and thermometer on a balloon trip up to 9,000 feet" (Science and Its Times) That same year, Jeffries and Jean Pierre Blanchard were the first to cross the English Channel by balloon.

Tuesday, February 3. 2015

The first paper money issued by a government in the Western world was issued in 1690 by the Massachusetts Bay colony to help it pay soldiers. Some sources, such as Investopedia, say it was on February 3. Others, such as Slate, only report that it was sometime in 1690. You can see an order by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay colony from December 10, 1690 that £7,000 of printed bills be issued in denominations from 5 shillings to £5. So, maybe the money wasn't issued until February 3, 1691? I guess more research is required to find a definitive date.

Friday, January 30. 2015

The list of new books and other materials added to the library’s collection in December has been posted. Click on “…more New Arrivals” on the library’s home page. Or, go directly to http://library.umd.umich.edu/newbooks/.

Thursday, January 29. 2015

Captain Joseph Hazelwood's trial for criminal negligence with respect to the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska in 1989 began on this day in 1990. The library has books about the trial, oil spills and their impact on the environment, and the Environmental Protection Agency. See, for example:

Wednesday, January 28. 2015

According to National Day Calendar, today is National Kazoo Day! If you still have a kazoo, play it sometime today. If you don't have one, you can probably find one at a dollar store. Or, you can get plans to make your own in the e-book Whittlin' Whistles: How to Make Music with Your Pocket Knife. If kazoos aren't your thing, there are also instructions for fipple whistles (recorders and irish pennywhistles are examples of fipple whistles) and for vuvuzelas (remember the 2010 World Cup in South Africa?). As the book says, whittling a whistle is a great camping or campfire activity, but who would want to go camping on a 20° day, like today?

Tuesday, January 27. 2015

The January 27, 1815 edition of the Rhode-Island American reported that several British ships were "Captured on the Lakes" during the War of 1812. In addition to the 20-gun Detroit, the 39-gun Confiance, the 20-gun Hammet, the 19-gun Queen Charlotte, the 16-gun Duke of Gloucester, the 14-gun Lady Prevost, the 10-gun Cherub, the 10-gun Birch, the 10-gun Hunter, and the 1-gun Chippawa were also captured by the Americans. To see what other ships were captured elsewhere or lost by the British since June 18, 1812, see British Naval Force in Early American Newspapers.

Wednesday, January 21. 2015

Optics InfoBase provides access to the journals of the Optical Society of America, as well as papers from OSA's major meetings (past and current).

Did you see yesterday's news report that the Seattle Mariners will make history by becoming "the first major league team to install an LED lighting system in their stadium"? You can find hundreds of articles and papers about light-emitting diodes in Optics InfoBase.

Tuesday, January 20. 2015

According to HistoryOrb.com, The Beatles appeared on the ABC television series Shindig! on this date 50 years ago. According to TV.com, however, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, and The Fearsome Foursome (a "Quartet made up of Los Angeles Rams linemen") appeared, among others.

Never heard of Shindig!? I haven't, but I found out that it is mentioned in a few articles in Periodicals Archive Online: "Pop Music on Camera" (Commentary, vol. 41, no. 1), "Image Is Everything? Television and the Counterculture Message in the 1960s" (Journal of Popular Film and Television, vol. 22, no. 1), and "'Where the Action Is': Dick Clark's Precursor to Music Video" (Journal of Popular Film and Television, vol. 25, no. 1).

Periodicals Archive Online includes more than 3 million articles in more than 700 humanities and social science journals, from their first issues through the final issue or 2000. Many older journals not indexed electronically anywhere else are included, with international coverage and more than 100 foreign-language titles.

Monday, January 19. 2015

Mass Observation was a pioneering social research organization whose papers provide insights into the cultural and social history of Britain from 1937 to 1965. The material in Mass Observation Online, offers insight into everyday life in the 1930s and 1940s. Material includes reports, images, diaries, and more.

Our subscription to Mass Observation Online now includes Supplement IV, which further supplements coverage of the Second World War, as well as post-war diaries, topic collections and directives up to and including 1967. View diaries covering 1951 to 1967, directives from 1948 to 1951, and 35 topic collections that cover such topics as air raids, commercial advertising, day nurseries, games and jigsaws, and much more. To see the full extent of what is covered in Supplement IV, see http://www.amdigital.co.uk/m-collections/collection/mass-observation-iv/.